"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

This Day in History: Jun 14, 1982: Falkland Islands War ends

After suffering through six weeks of military defeats against
Britain's armed forces, Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending
the Falkland Islands War.

The Falkland Islands, located about 300
miles off the southern tip of Argentina, had long been claimed by the
British. British navigator John Davis may have sighted the islands in
1592, and in 1690 British Navy Captain John Strong made the first
recorded landing on the islands. He named them after Viscount Falkland,
who was the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time. In 1764, French
navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville founded the islands' first human
settlement, on East Falkland, which was taken over by the Spanish in
1767. In 1765, the British settled West Falkland but left in 1774 for
economic reasons. Spain abandoned its settlement in 1811.

In 1816,
Argentina declared its independence from Spain and in 1820 proclaimed
its sovereignty over the Falklands. The Argentines built a fort on East
Falkland, but in 1832 it was destroyed by the USS Lexington in
retaliation for the seizure of U.S. seal ships in the area. In 1833, a
British force expelled the remaining Argentine officials and began a
military occupation. In 1841, a British lieutenant governor was
appointed, and by the 1880s a British community of some 1,800 people on
the islands was self-supporting. In 1892, the wind-blown Falkland
Islands were collectively granted colonial status.

For the next 90
years, life on the Falklands remained much unchanged, despite
persistent diplomatic efforts by Argentina to regain control of the
islands. In 1981, the 1,800 Falkland Islanders--mostly sheep
farmers--voted in a referendum to remain British, and it seemed unlikely
that the Falklands would ever revert to Argentine rule. Meanwhile, in
Argentina, the military junta led by Lieutenant General Leopoldo
Galtieri was suffering criticism for its oppressive rule and economic
management and planned the Falklands invasion as a means of promoting
patriotic feeling and propping up its regime.

In March 1982, Argentine salvage workers occupied South Georgia
Island, and a full-scale invasion of the Falklands began on April 2.
Argentine amphibious forces rapidly overcame the small garrison of
British marines at the town of Stanley on East Falkland and the next day
seized the dependent territories of South Georgia and the South
Sandwich group. Under orders from their commanders, the Argentine troops
inflicted no British casualties, despite suffering losses to their own
units. Nevertheless, Britain was outraged, and Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher assembled a naval task force of 30 warships to retake the
islands. As Britain is 8,000 miles from the Falklands, it took several
weeks for the British warships to arrive. On April 25, South Georgia
Island was retaken, and after several intensive naval battles fought
around the Falklands, British troops landed on East Falkland on May 21.
After several weeks of fighting, the large Argentine garrison at Stanley
surrendered on June 14, effectively ending the conflict.

Britain
lost five ships and 256 lives in the fight to regain the Falklands, and
Argentina lost its only cruiser and 750 lives. Humiliated in the
Falklands War, the Argentine military was swept from power in 1983, and
civilian rule was restored. In Britain, Margaret Thatcher's popularity
soared after the conflict, and her Conservative Party won a landslide
victory in 1983 parliamentary elections.